Gulf of Corinth, Nafpilo & Tolo

Woke up and headed south from Delphi. One thing to point out is the amount of Bauxite that can be found in these mountains. Alcoa and Aluminum manufactures require this component to make everything from soda cans to airplane parts. There are massive mining and shipping operations that seem to be everywhere around this part of Greece. Theo told us that the red in the soil is from the Bauxite, which could be seen all around the place. Here are a few pictures of some plants that we passed on our way through the town Galaxidi.

There are also lots of purple flowers that grow wild, which Theo tells us are Thyme (seasoning) which seems to grow everywhere and smells wonderful. Greece’s coast is really pretty, more so than Italy I think. The sea and blues are much more pronounced, and the jagged coastline makes for some picturesque shots.

We passed lots of aquaculture farms, which must be a very big business here. I have no idea what they were raising. At first I thought maybe muscles but Theo thought they might be fish farms? Every little hamlet has some sort of marina or fishing trade it seems. Somebody along the trip told me that the price for fish in the Med has been on the rise for quite sometime, as it is being over fished at an alarming rate over the past few years.

To get to the lower half of Greece, we had to take a ferry across the Gulf of Corinth from Nicolaos to Aegeo. Our boat reminded me of the old LST’s from the invasion of Normandy, which were used to bring in support vehicles after the beaches were secure in France. I assume that this body of water is too small to be affected by the tide? I haven’t noticed too much tidal activity in the Med either, so I guess it goes without saying.

The boat trip took about 45 minutes to an hour to make the crossing. Very windy, but I got some cool shots I guess. After unloading, our bus took us down to the town of Corinth, and then headed south through the Argoleda region of Greece. Along the way we stopped at McDonalds, which was part of a big compromise, as we didn’t want to lose an hour at a sit down restaurant, because many of us wanted to be able to spend it at the beach. Some of the kids who were homesick for American type food were also happy, so we bit the bullet and were under way in a half hour. Back on the road we passed through Argos and into Nafplio (Greece’s old Capital) where a massive fortress lay above the town used to fight the Turks in the war of independence. In the 1820’s.

Upon arriving at our hotel in Tolo, we dumped our stuff and head down to the beach. It was really nice to put our toes in the water after being on the bus all day long. Here are some beach shots:

After dinner for 10 Euro, each of us took the bus back over to the town of Nafpilo. Once there, we walked over to a really nice plaza where there were many sidewalk cafés and street vendors. I bought some cool toys for the kids and the atmosphere of the place was really fun. All around the plaza we saw kids running about, playing soccer, parents sat outside the cafés getting sloshed, while the vendors were making money serving drinks. Pretty much the entire plaza was happy into the night. Somehow the US shopping malls just don’t even hold a candle to this type of community venue.

We found a nice little café and put our feet up. Rentar ordered some Uzo, which is a liquorish type drink which Meer liked, but I took a pass on. Eventually the night wound down and we had to make our way back to the bus. Once at the bus, we discovered that we were blocked in and could not get out of the parking lot. A small vehicle was blocking our way, so I suggested to Yodi and Theo that we move the car. (Meer and I used to do this to my roommate Ed’s Buick back in College, moving it completely to a different parking space than where he parked it.) Moving his old green monster was a challenge, so moving this tiny mini was a piece of cake. We picked up the vehicle, and rolled it forward about 10 feet. The car alarm went off, the kids all laughed, and Theo was elated with joy. To celebrate our victory over the mini, the Bus driver put on dance music, and our bus transformed into the “party bus”. Gloria got up and danced with Theo, which was really funny to see. Everyone had a great time.

Back at the hotel, after room checks, Rentar crashed early so we went back down to the beach and walked along the shore at night. Came back and hung out with Gloria, & Theo on the patio until about 2 AM then went to bed. Some of the kids from Louisiana were playing BS poker in the hallway and got yelled at, so most of the fun got shut down by a watchful front desk clerk.

At 2:30 AM, Ruth, (Stacie’s 62 year old roommate) decided that she was going to shave her legs. While putting her feet up on the sink, she fell over backwards and cracked her head open on the shower. Rather than wake Stacie up to have the wound looked at, she wrapped it in a towel and went to bed. 7 AM the next morning, towel covered in blood brought about new problems, but that is a story for a different day…